Comparisons

Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle HR vs Garmin Instinct Solar

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Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle HRGarmin Instinct Solar
Title Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle HR Heart Rate Stainless Steel Touchscreen Smartwatch, Color: Smoke (Model: FTW4024)Garmin Instinct Solar, Solar-Powered Rugged Outdoor Smartwatch, Built-in Sports Apps and Health Monitoring, Dark Blue (010-02293-11)
Model Fossil
Gen 5 Carlyle HR
Garmin
Instinct Solar

Basic Info

Suggested Price $295.00$383.88
Sale Price Check Price*Check Price*
Release Nov 2019Aug 2020

Overview

DescriptionTrain like a pro with this 44mm Fossil Carlyle HR smartwatch. Bluetooth functionality enables syncing with your smartphone, while the internal storage lets you work out with your favorite tunes. This swimproof Fossil Carlyle HR smartwatch features GPS to track your activity outdoors, and the heart monitor keeps tabs on your cardiac rate.Do what you love, longer with Instinct Solar. This rugged GPS smartwatch boasts solar charging — giving incredible battery life in smartwatch and Expedition modes while outdoors. Monitor how your body uses energy by tracking heart rate, stress, estimated sleep and Pulse Ox (this is not a medical device and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or monitoring of any medical condition) — which helps give you a better understanding of your health and wellness. Get more out of the sports you love with preloaded activity profiles such as running, biking, swimming and more. Smart notifications (when paired with a compatible smartphone) at the wrist keep you connected to what matters. Multiple global navigation satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS and Galileo) help you track wherever your adventures take you.
Top Features
  • Extend your battery life for multiple days with new, smart battery modes; magnetic USB rapid charger included; charge up to 80 percent in under an hour
  • Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100
  • Smartwatches powered with Wear OS by Google work with iPhone and Android Phones ; Circumference: 200+/ 5mm
  • Heart Rate & Activity Tracking using Google Fit; Built in GPS for distance tracking; Swimproof design 3ATM; Google Assistant it’s your own personal Google, always ready to help; Speed through checkout with your watch using Google Pay
  • This is one smart watch now with a speaker for audible alerts and taking phone calls, Google Assistant responses and more; receive smartphone notifications and alerts; microphone; download third party apps with 8GB of storage and 1G RAM memory capacity
  • Case size: 44mm; Band size: 22mm; interchangeable with all Fossil 22mm bands; Screen Size: 1.28" display with 416x416 resolution; touchscreen functionality; Connectivity: Bluetooth(R) 4.1 Low Energy and Wi Fi 802.11 b/g/n; wireless syncing; imported
  • Vastly extended battery life through solar charging
  • Rugged GPS watch is water-rated to 100 meters and constructed to U.S. military standard 810 for thermal, shock and water resistance
  • Built-in 3-axis compass and barometric altimeter plus multiple global navigation satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS and Galileo) track in more challenging environments than GPS alone
  • Track your activities for running, biking, swimming, strength and more
  • Help understand your health and wellness better with all-day health monitoring and Pulse Ox (this is not a medical device and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or monitoring of any medical condition)
  • Monitor how your body uses energy by tracking heart rate, stress and sleep estimates with Body Battery energy monitoring

Reviews

Walmart Rating4.1 (out of 222 reviews)4.6 (out of 63 reviews)
BestBuy Rating4.4 (out of 134 reviews)4.8 (out of 18 reviews)
Latest Reviews

Much faster than gen 4
Rating: 5
I've been wearing fossil smart watches for 1.5 years and a hybrid smart watch for 2 years before that. I really liked the gen 4 and it was a difficult choice actually upgrading. The 5 is so much faster than the 4, that alone os worth the upgrade. The screen is slightly smaller, which was a little bit of a let down, but the case is also not as tall on my wrist, which is awesome. Overall, after almost a month, I'm very happy with the size, it gets knocked accidentally much less. I was expecting more changes to the sleep screen with the new chipset, and I was expecting a revolutionary change for the battery, based on the presser for the 3100 i read. In reality, i suppose i get about 7 more hours, so i wear it while I'm sleeping right now (to monitor my heart rate for fun). The speaker, is....much more awesome than i thought it'd be. Over all, solid product. Fossil watches are just gorgeous and i get compliments on it alot.
by Odin, wearer of watches on 2020-01-04T16:00:00

Amazing!
Rating: 5
its amazing , the watch has everything u need minus the ability to take pictures. Its auto text is more accurate then my galaxy s10e. REAL TIME NOTIFICATIONS!!!! Yea no more 2sec delays watch and fone pair vibration and sound per notification. Guarantee never to miss a notification.
by Bigsexy bry on 2020-05-28T17:00:00

Exactly what I wanted
Rating: 5
Very heavy and nice looking, does what I need it to, ( talk, text and music mostly) it's exactly as advertised. I LOVE everything about the Fossil, like alot. Alot of compliments "nice watch" I'm like "oh thanks! Its my new fossil!" Definitely recommend this product for anyone.
by Ty-Fune on SoundCloud on 2020-05-14T17:00:00

Solid Smartwatch
Rating: 5
As an iPhone user, I was looking for an alternative to the Apple Watch (I don't really care for the square look). This is an excellent watch that looks and feels amazing! It does all of what I need it to, aside from sending text messages directly from the watch. Not really a that big of a deal. I was concerned about battery life, but I've been getting about a 1.5 days with regular use on extended mode (checking texts, Google Fit, Spotify, etc.) Using Spotify and Strava during a marathon, it died after 5.5 hours (I guess I just need to run faster next time ). The display is beautiful. The interface is smooth and quick. For my first smartwatch, I'm very impressed with all the features that it offers.
by Harry D on 2019-12-24T16:00:00

Gen 5 with double memory vs last year's is only way to go
Rating: 5
I own the Gen 4 venture and it was a great smart watch but you could definitely tell it didn't have enough memory. It would lag and be unresponsive frequently. Since upgrading to the Gen 5 the difference is amazing. Plus the option to answer a phone call on the watch is a cool feature to have included as well. The battery lasts me all day for what I do. Which is usually just checking the time and doing a 30 minute exercise. I usually go to bed with about 25 to 50% battery left. People who complain that it is not good on battery on the first day they own it need to make sure they run all the updates for the system and Google play. After the initial setup the battery will start to show it's true usage.
by Ryan on 2019-12-26T16:00:00

My husband really like it. I bought it for Father's day gift
Rating: 5
My husband really like it. I bought it for Father's day gift. He never thought about it. Thanks Fossil for your very good product and rapid delivery service.
by Clasie on 2020-06-28T17:00:00

Great watch...
Rating: 5
It's a very good looking watch, received a lots compliments, works great with my pixel 4 xl, the battery is just ok, I wish It could have been better compared to other watches.
by Mario on 2019-12-23T16:00:00

The best WearOS smartwatch
Rating: 4
This is my 3rd Fossil smartwatch (4th smartwatch in total) and it is the best one yet. I've only used this with Android phones but it works very well. The reason for only 4 stars and not 5 is for two reasons: First minor reason, I prefer the look of the Gen 3 watches but that's just personal preference. The main reason for dropping a star is that I have had this for only a few weeks now and the dark metal color is starting to wear off on the bottom side of the strap, I assume where it rubs on my desk at work (see image where you can see it wearing off the clasp and some of the links). Having previously only own stainless-steel colored bands, which is not available for this Gen, I don't know if this has been a common issue for previous years where the smoke color was available. But it is disappointing to having this issue on a quality product after such a short time.
by AndyC on 2019-09-21T17:00:00

After five different fossil watches in the past 18 months...
Rating: 1
I cannot recommend them any longer. The charging rings come loose on the back of the new models, just like the last generation . models as well. When the rings come loose, you can no longer charge the watch. I am on the third 5th generation watch. Fossil is kind enough to replace them under warranty...but not refund me. I would not buy a watch from Fossil. I wear mine for spin class, for work and around the house. Treat it gently, clean the back before charging it etc...and still, the rings come loose.
by J. Underwood on 2019-12-01T16:00:00

Band already has wear marks after a week
Rating: 1
Got this as a replacement to my earlier model that could not be repaired and constantly reset. Did not want this darker color for exactly the reason I rate it low. Smoke color has rubbed off the bottom within a week. Now it has shiny spots on it. Very disatisfied with the quality of the finish. Watch seems to function ok but definitely would not have bought it if I didn't have a credit from my previous Fossil smart watch that failed. Smoke color looks nice but is am epic fail for function
by Kramerpower on 2019-12-24T16:00:00

Sturdy, functional, fully featured
Rating: 5
I switched from a Fenix 5 Plus... mainly for these reasons: - Solar-Charging - Underwater Heartrate - Pulse-Ox - Monochrome Display I could have upgraded to the newer fenix 6 pro solar to get most of these features above, but the Instinct Solar has, in my opinion a few advantages: - price... lets face it, technology evolves and in two years you probably want the newer model ... the fenix for that is a tad too expensive. - Monochrome Display... the thing offers a far better readability in adverse light conditions in comparison to the colour model in my opinion - larger 100% Solar panel ... You loose the VO2Max... which I truly don't understand why (garmin, if you're listening, SW-Update please - please add VO2max to the Instinct) You loose the full maps... the maps on the fenix are cool - but I don't use them that much, so this wasn't a huge deal. The menus structure and overall interface design on the Instinct is excellent... I think if you're looking for an affordable, rugged, well designed and extremely versatile sports/smart-watch and like the "G-shock" styling - the Instinct is hard to pass on.
by D-G1 on 2020-08-24T17:00:00

Great watch overall!
Rating: 5
Very happy I went with the instinct solar! Battery life is amazing. Coming from the Apple Watch I was concerned but it does all I need it to do plus I don't need to charge daily. Personally for work outs, and hiking/running the Garmin Connect app is amazing.
by Deke23 on 2020-08-10T17:00:00

Great watch!
Rating: 5
Love this watch. Only had it for a short amount of time but so far getting a really positive first impression. Very comfortable and intuitive to use. Setup was easy and it paired with my inreach mini. The connect app is fun to look at on my iPhone to review the data from each day. Looking forward to taking this watch on adventures!
by Cojacks on 2020-08-13T17:00:00

Insane battery
Rating: 5
I have tried a lot of smartwatches and was using wearOS watch to track activities for a while. I hated that the daily routine of charging the watch. Getting instinct solar was a game-changer. I charge my watch about once in two weeks with about 30 mins of GPS usage daily. I have been following Garmin Coach 10k plan which is super fun. I rarely take the watch off. It's super light so it is not annoying to sleep with. Love this watch.
by sem.udit on 2020-08-09T17:00:00

Lots of information
Rating: 5
Had it for about 2 weeks now and it makes accessing health data easy. I'm not yet saying it will replace a cycling computer, but not far off. Battery life is better than most competitors from what I can tell. The ergonomics of its buttons takes some getting used to, but that's also due to its broad capabilities.
by lesdunham on 2020-08-10T17:00:00

I Am Very Pleased with my New Instinct Solar
Rating: 5
I have had two different FitBit watches and the Galaxy Watch and the Galaxy 2 Watch. The Instinct Solar is my favorite. I like that it is easy to read in all conditions. I am particularly pleased that with the accuracy and consistency of the heartrate monitor, which is quite important to me. I also like that I can turn off the things I have no interest in using like text notifications and phone calls. I just use the watch as a watch and a fitness tracker that is it. That is all I want. The battery life is terrific. I don't know what the maximum life is, but it is way over a week. It has been over a week since I charged it last and it is reading that I have 11 days left.
by aktrout on 2020-08-09T17:00:00

Great battery life
Rating: 4
I love the watch. Had it for one week and still cannot believe the things it can do. The apps that go with it a really good as well. I would give it a 5 str rating except for the manual which does not appear to be up to date with the watch. Some things I just cannot figure out how to get them operating properly. I recommend this watch.
by Orangie on 2020-09-14T17:00:00

Mostly Perfect, Except For One Flaw
Rating: 4
I love many things about the Instinct Solar, but my 51 year old eyes HATE the small and, for me, useless round window on the face. I wish Garmin would ditch it in lieu of something more customize-able. There is simply no data field I can put in there that I can use. That said, I basically LOVE everything else about it. The battery life is awesome, and navigation is easy. It's nearly perfect, but I'm simply not going to run with readers on so that I can see the tiny data field.
by krusty505 on 2020-08-21T17:00:00

Wonder watch!
Rating: 4
I wore another watch (Timex) for many years. In the last year the need arose for a watch to also measure heart rate and steps. I looked at an Apple Watch but it is only partially waterproof, and only has a short time between battery recharging. My new Garmin Instinct Solar can hold a charge for up to 27 days. It was a no brain decision.
by Will80 on 2020-08-10T17:00:00

HR Monitor Died In Less Than A Month
Rating: 1
I've faithfully used an old school Garmin since 2011 and was excited to take my training to the next level with the ability to customize workouts, and monitor my heart rate. Worked well for about 3 weeks, and then I started noticing inconsistent readings during my past couple of runs. I was aware that wrist HRM can be accurate for an entire run, but take time to adjust during quick fluctuations of running intensity. Was just about to order a chest HRM to get that level of accuracy with my interval training when I noticed the wrist HRM just stopped working altogether. I checked the manual, double-checked my settings, recharged the watch, and even reset the system. Sorry to have to return this, but if the HRM doesn't work then defeats the main purpose of having this watch.
by Noe777 on 2020-09-13T17:00:00

All Features

Web ID9590346
releaseNov 2019Aug 2020
SensorsAccelerometerAccelerometer
Battery Strength IndicatorYesYes
Internal Memory Capacity8 gigabytes
Display TypeAMOLEDMIP LCD
Case Size44 millimeters
Customizable Watch FacesYes
Form FactorWristwatchWristwatch
Charging Interface(s)WirelessUSB
Touch ScreenYesNo
Clock DisplayYes
ColorSmoke with Smoke Stainless Steel Band
Maximum Depth of Water Resistance98 feet330 feet
RechargeableYesYes
Product Depth0.47 inches
Wi-Fi CompatibilityWireless BWireless N
Minimum Wrist Size8.07 inches5.2 inches
Mobile NotificationsYesYes
Alert TypeVibration
Voice ActivatedYes
Band MaterialStainless steelSilicone
Global PositioningGPSGPS
Central Processing UnitQualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100
Product Height1.73 inches
Product NameGen 5 Smartwatch 44mm Stainless SteelGarmin Instinct® Solar Rugged GPS Smartwatch 45mm Tidal Blue
Display ScreenYesYes
Band Width22 millimeters
Case ShapeRound
BrandFossilGarmin
Bluetooth Version4.2
Color DisplayYesNo
Backlit DisplayYesYes
Metrics MeasuredActivity vs. inactivityAltitude changes
Music PlayerYesNo
Manufacturer's Warranty - Parts2 Years1-year limited consumer
Usage Time36 hours
Built-In MicrophoneYes
SeriesCarlyle HRInstinct Solar
Case MaterialStainless steelPlastic
Case Thickness0.47 inches
Case Width1.73 inches
System Memory (RAM)1 gigabytes
Bluetooth EnabledYesYes
Band TypeLink bracelet
Mobile Payment Service SupportedGoogle Pay
Clasp TypeBuckle
NFC TechnologyYesNo
Color CategoryGrayBlue
Model NumberFTW4024010-02293-11
Operating System CompatibilityAndroidAndroid
Water ResistantYesYes
Manufacturer's Warranty - Labor2 Years1-year limited consumer
Additional Accessories IncludedUSB magnetic charger
Operating SystemWear OS
Vibration AlertYes
Band ColorSmoke
Product TypeSmartwatchSmartwatch
Voice Assistant Built-inGoogle Assistant
ColourDark Blue
DepartmentUnisex-adult
Included ComponentsInstinct Solar; Charging/data cable; Documentation
Date First AvailableJuly 8, 2020
Item model number010-02293-11
Other display featuresWireless
Batteries1 Lithium Polymer batteries required. (included)
Item Weight5.6 ounces
Dust ResistantYes
Battery TypeLithium-ion
Maximum Wrist Size8.8 inches
Multi-Sport TrackingYes
Product SetInstinct Solar
Replaceable BatteryNo
Internal CarrierNot Applicable
Adjustable BrightnessYes
App CompatibleYes

More Information

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